Disney extends exclusive Netflix pact to Canada

The streaming service is further taking control of the pay TV window that until now has gone to traditional broadcasters.

Walt Disney Studios has signed another multi-year licensing agreement with Netflix, this time for the Canadian market, making the subscription service the exclusive pay TV home for its movies. The pact gives Netflix control of the window that traditionally went to television broadcasters.

Beginning with films released theatrically in 2015, Netflix Canada will carry first-run features from Disney Live Action, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, Disneynature and DreamWorks Studios. The agreement will see the films available on Netflix 8 months after they leave theaters, quickening the pace at which live-action and animated features are available to home viewers, as it usually takes about a year for big-name movies to land on pay TV channels.

Disney inked a similar pact with Netflix in the US a couple years ago, though that agreement comes into effect with movies released theatrically in 2016 as Starz has a deal with the Mouse House that runs through 2015. Earlier this year, it was announced Sony Pictures Animation content will also be available in the first pay-TV window in the U.S.

Netflix launched its Canadian service in 2010 and is now the home of first-run pay TV films from Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, and 20th Century Fox, its original series like the Emmy-nominatedHouse of Cards, Orange is the New Black and Derek, and a variety of Cancon such as the Trailer Park Boys.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed and Netflix wouldn’t say how long the deal is for.